Senate Beat is Making Working Titles

Senate Public, which today began at 4:14pm, discussed a plethora of issues across campus, however, the most notable shall be displayed first. Senator Bella Moore announced that the Health Campus Center (HCC) is now providing Narcan, and one can be signed up to be Narcan trained. Senator Caroline Spiggle issued “breaking news” that upon reassessing the utility of the DAR committee, Senate has decided to disband the committee in favor of a CARDS committee, in part due to the fact that there are elected representatives in CARDS. Senator Philip Dussin announced his pending resignation from Senate next semester due to his wishes to study abroad. He then thanked Senate for the work they have done with him over the past semester and was met with resounding applause.

The funding allocations at Senate Public today consisted solely of a request for $900 by the Southwest Asian and North African Student Union (SWANA), which was granted in full by Senate. Vice President Jefferson Ratliff motioned to approve these allocations, and Senator Meera Balan seconded the motion, and it was unanimously approved by the 10 voting members of Senate present. Head Treasurer Anahi Sanchez Marcial then announced that applications for the Baby Money position are currently open. It is a three-semester position, and she urged the audience to visit Handshake and apply.

In the interest of accuracy, Senate has requested to write the following section of Senate Beat regarding the addition of Senate seats themselves. “Fine,” said a tired and overworked Quest writer willing to share their burden. In an email to the Quest, Senate clarified that "[o]n Sunday, March 24th, Senate voted and approved the addition of two more Senate seats to the Wage Sheet with one to be introduced in this upcoming election and the other to be voted on in the election of Fall 2024. This will result in a 15-member Senate for the upcoming semester and a 16-member Senate from Spring 2025 and onward. Alongside the election of Senators and Quest Editors this upcoming election, there will be a non-binding, advisory referendum on the ballot. The conduction of this advisory referendum is solely at the request of Senate and is not a result of processes outlined in Article 3, Section 4 or Article 4, Section 1 of the Community Constitution or the result of decisions made by Election Czars. This referendum is non-binding for any actions and will be released upon the closing of nominations alongside the announcement of candidates." Along with this, it was further confirmed by Vice President Ratliff that there will be 6 open Senate seats this election, and the candidate that places sixth will only get a half-term – a semester on Senate – to fill in for the remainder of Senator Dussin’s term.

There have also been two proposals for murals on campus, with locations pending. After committee reports, during Q&A, Catherine Hoyle ‘25, co-president for DSU, inquired about these proposals. She mentioned that many members of the community were very excited about the murals, and hoped to reveal them during reading week. She wanted to inquire about the timeline, as in the artist for the murals will not be on campus over the summer, and so she hopes that the mural will be done before the end of class season. In response, President Gude said they would see if Senate could get a tighter timeline together soon.

Vice President Ratliff announced that he will work with the White Bird Sub-Czar for Renn Fayre on allocating and highlighting resources, along with creating other more resources around campus. Vice President Ratliff also announced major changes to the function of the Appointments Committee, which has been split into two different nightly/weekly sessions chaired by Senator Lindsay Worrell on Monday and chaired by himself on Wednesday. “We’re sort of overextended all the time,” said Ratliff, commenting on the need for the change. He emphasized, however, that “not much has actually really changed outside of interview conductions.” Senator Andrew Sakahara then clarified that because of timing, the change will not be in the bylaws yet, but will be added to the bylaws at the start of next semester. 

Senator Lily Garvey announced changes to the Concentration in Creative Writing. Starting with the class of 2027, students who are in the English Department will have to apply to submit a creative writing thesis. This includes a requirement of taking at least three writing workshops prior to submitting a thesis proposal. 

In other news, President Andee Gude, in their committee reports, noted that a QR code will be up for the Senate website on the bulletin board, which has been recently redone by Senate’s secretary, Taylor Barth. There was an absence of news on Admissions and Financial Aid because Senate was removed from the meeting Wednesday morning. Senate has also been talking about housing with CLBR, and there’s a “big effort” by the administration to get everyone housed next year. Summer housing this year will be located in the Grove. In meeting with Honor Council and J-Board, concerns were voiced for rehiring and accountability processes. In their “Liaisons to Student Groups w/ Space” committee, President Gude met with someone from Facilities, along with Vice-President of Student Life Karnell McConnell-Black and Dean of Students Chris Toutain, and talked about summer cleaning for student spaces, and the possibility of getting new furniture and further funding. 

Senator Lindsay Worrell was absent at this week’s Senate Public, and her committee reports were given by President Gude. They noted the lack of an Appointments Committee meeting last week. In terms of SHARE, Senator Worrell has been going to dinner dialogues, which have been covering support for gender minorities in academia. Vice President Ratliff’s committee reports announced the appointment of a speaker by the commencement committee. He also is looking forward to a meeting with SHARE scheduled to take place on Thursday, March 28. He also noted an upcoming AOD tabling event which will take place today (Friday, March 29) from 11:30am to 1:30pm. and Senator Spiggle announced a “glow-up special prize” that will be given out at the tabling event. Although Senate did not say exactly what the prize was, there was a lot of what the Quest can only describe as “hint-hint-wink-winking” and Senate did mention it would be “on theme with AOD.” 

In Senator Andrew Happy’s committee reports, he mentioned a meeting with Associate Dean of Students for Academic Life Steve Abrahão (which Senator Garvey is also involved in) which would take place sometime in April, along with a Student Committee on Academic Policy and Planning tabling to take place next Wednesday, April 3, to gather student thoughts on Junior Seminars, Junior Qualification Exams, and Humanities 110. In Senator Meera Balan’s committee reports, she mentioned meeting with Residence Life to discuss what HA training should look like next year, along with setting goals with Title IX on how to provide resources for minorities in STEM. In order to inform students on these and other Title IX goals, she intends to discuss an event that has a working title of “Title IX Talks.” 

In Senator Sakahara’s committee reports, along with the aforementioned election announcements, he mentioned how in working with the Student Committee on Diversity they are adding demographics questions to a coming survey pertaining to Humanities 110. They have also met to address concerns about the ways in which identity-based clubs receive funding. For Senate bylaws, the last edits have been finished and they are pending voting. In Senator Garvey’s committee reports, she mentioned attending a Committee on Academic Policy and Planning (CAPP) meeting on Monday, March 25 in which she spoke with faculty searches for specific departments next year, such as Anthropology, Economics, and Chemistry. The searches were approved.

In Senator Spiggle’s committee reports, she mentioned working with DAR to work on a Neuroscience art therapy event, along with working with the Institutional Research office to get salient statistics about students with disabilities. When it comes to the Accessibility Committee, Senator Spiggle is working on helping students with injuries along with streamlining the injury accommodation process. The Commons Committee is working on improving gluten-free signage and labeling. Senator Spiggle also mentioned the Community for Accessibility Resources and Disability Services (CARDS) having passed their bylaws, changing from a weekly to a bimonthly newsletter, and developing accessibility training. Senator Spiggle also wanted to make sure and remind students they can email cards@reed.edu to access the accessibility training. Senator Spiggle said few words about Renn Fayre, except that it was “chugging along.” As Student Space Liaison, Senator Spiggle is making an accessibility audit guide, collecting info from previously taken accessibility audits.

In Senator Philip Dussin’s committee reports, he shared a story about being informed of hazardous obstructions on the path to the DoJo. Senator Dussin successfully reported this and the issue was taken care of. Senator Dussin also thanks those who shared information about gym hours on weekends and says he got great results. In Vice Treasurer Lucy Knight-King’s committee reports, she mentioned how club signators can request furniture if they need it for their club’s use of student spaces. Signators can email her and she will add them to the spreadsheet. SCODE is working on bias training for Senate, which they talked with Vice Treasurer Knight-King about. According to her, this will be worked on further internally.